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Not even the smell of blood is enough to drown out the sweet nutmeg and orange scent that haunts me. I lean against the trunk of a towering pine, making short work of my steak and staring at the moon.
Nickel and Billy melt out of the tree line, both of them in wolf form.
Growing up in England, Nickel’s shifts were careful and controlled, timed with hunts in Northern Scotland. He still keeps his wolf on a tight schedule, but closer to the full moon, he allows himself to stay in wolf form longer.
Billy’s just a savage.
They prowl to either side of me and shift into human form. Nickel rises, shaking himself. Billy stays crouched on his haunches.
“Good hunt.” Billy’s voice is rough, his vocal chords still recovering from his shift.
“Hunter’s moon.” Nickel steps out of the shadows enough to let the moonlight bathe his face. “Pack games are coming up. We should go.”
The Pack Games, sponsored by packs all around the world, are a place for shifters to find their mates. There’s no online dating for wolves. You have to smell your mate before you know if she’s the one.
I’ve been to all the Pack Games all over the world and haven’t found my match, but of course, there might be someone new. A young she-wolf who is just now of age.
As alpha of my pack, I’m expected to find and mate with a strong she-wolf. Someone worthy of me and my legacy. Someone who can stand by my side and hold off our enemies.
My choice of mate is everything. I must choose carefully, and above all: she cannot be human. That would be unthinkable. It would put my whole pack, my family, in jeopardy. The Adalwulfs would sense weakness and attack and attack and attack until they’d wiped us from the face of the Earth.
I must do my duty and mate a she-wolf. The next Pack Games are this winter, and I should definitely go.
Instead, the mere mention of the Games makes my wolf snarl. It must be because I’m still blue-balled from lunch with Madison.
Too bad. I can’t have her. Not even as a diversion until I find my chosen mate. That wouldn’t be fair to her, and I don’t want to lose her as my assistant.
The agitation in my chest shoves up toward my throat.
Mine.I have to clench my jaw to keep a snarl from rocketing out.
My wolf wants Madison.
But he can’t have her. An alpha wolf can’t mate a human. Especially not one in my position. I’ve had to prove my worthiness to every male and she-wolf in this pack since the day my father died. If I mated a human–the idea is ludicrous, but if I did–I would lose the confidence of everyone in the pack, and the Adalwulfs would sweep in and take everything. My pack members would defect.
It’s no doubt the outcome they wished for when they poisoned my father. No one thought I’d be able to not only maintain the loyalty of my pack members but rebuild a successful Wall Street enterprise.
“I’m in.” Billy rolls his shoulders and rises, cracking his spine.
“We know you’re in,” Nickel scoffs. “You’ve slept with half of the entire she-wolf population.”
“Seriously,” Jake joins us, holding half a turkey carcass in his bare hands. “Leave some for the rest of us.”
Nickel sniffs. “You’re one to talk. You’ve slept with the other half.”
Jake and Billy smirk and bump fists.
“So what do you say, Alpha? Shall we go to the Pack Games? Sniff out a female or two? I know Ruby can’t wait to be an aunt.” Nickel sounds like he’s joking, but he and Billy and now Jake and Vance surround me. This isn’t a casual conversation. It’s a fucking intervention.
“No,” I bite out too quickly. I try to cover it. “Not this year. But you’re welcome to go. All of you. I know Scarlett and Ruby have bets on who will find their mate first.”
“Our alpha should be first,” Jake says.
Vance snorts. “Fate doesn’t work like that. Once you find your fated mate, there’s no waiting. You claim her or die.”
The wordsfated mateheat my body. Like my wolf is trying to tell me something. Something I absolutely refuse to hear.
“You go moon mad,” Billy corrects.
